MP blasts the police over investigation
ROCHDALE MP Simon Danczuk has slammed GMP after a four-year investigation into alleged child abuse at Knowl View ended with no-one facing trial.
GMP launched Operation Jaguar in 2012 to investigate abuse at the former residential school in Rochdale and other children’s homes.
The force then launched Operation Clifton in July 2014 in the wake of a book by Mr Danczuk, which detailed alleged widespread abuse at Knowl View by Cyril Smith and others, and a cover-up.
The book claimed there had been a cover up by Rochdale council and a failure by police to investigate persistent claims of abuse at the now closed Bamford school between the 1960s and 1990s.
The only person to be charged was David Higgins, 76, who was due to stand trial in December. But after reviewing new police evidence the CPS has stopped the case.
Mr Danczuk said: “GMP announced this investigation to great fanfare in Rochdale. Mistakes had previously been made and they said they would put them right. This raised the hopes of child abuse victims, and they have now been cruelly crushed. It is a complete mess.
“It is a bizarre. An independent body should look into how ineffective GMP was in carrying out this investigation. It has been a shabby investigation.”
He said as part of the investigation he had been interviewed. “I was so concerned about the quality of the investigation I took a solicitor with me,” he said.
“I was not under any suspicion, but it says something when an MP is taking a solicitor with him, as I was concerned about the way GMP were handling it.
“I later discovered that as part of the investigation they had interviewed my first wife why - she had never lived in Rochdale.
“GMP need to explain their lack of professionalism regarding this investigation.
“There is plenty of testimony from victims - I have heard it myself. Surely GMP are sophisticated enough to know testimony can vary when it is historic.
“A jury should have been allowed to decide in this case.”
GMP say a ‘significant amount of resources’ were invested in investigating the Knowl View allegations.
Operation Clifton, to establish if there was a cover-up, is now finalised but GMP have not yet revealed when its findings will be published.
If they are incorporated into the national independent inquiry into child sexual abuse the publication of the findings could be delayed.